100 Chadians flee killings of black migrant workers in Libya

About 100 Chadians have returned home from Libya after a wave of killings of black Africans in the north African country. The independent daily Le Pro

About 100 Chadians have returned home from Libya after a wave of killings of black Africans in the north African country, press reports said Friday.

The independent daily Le Progres quoted one returnee, Mahamat Saleh, as saying: "There were lots of deaths. Lots of Chadians were wounded or went missing, and many were burned alive.

"If you see us here, it shows that the situation is serious. ... We lost all our belongings and our homes were burned," he said.

Some returnees told the paper that the situation had calmed down but that isolated attacks were continuing against black migrant workers.

Many more Chadians are planning to leave, and have gathered at a camp in Tripoli where they are under the protection of Libyan security.

Some 500,000 Chadians live in Libya.

Meanwhile more than 3,600 Nigerians have returned home from Libya reporting that more than 130 black African migrant workers have been killed in growing racial attacks by Libyan Arab youths in recent weeks.

They said the assailants targetted black Africans from countries including Chad, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan.

In recent years, Libya's isolated leader, Moamer Kadhafi, has sought to win African support and has eased immigration rules, which has caused the black African migrant worker population to swell to around one million amid a population of six million Libyan Arabs.

With the economy under strain, Libyan Arab resentment against the migrant workers appears to have erupted, Nigerians told AFP.

A total of some 10,000 Nigerians are expected to arrive home over coming days. - (AFP).